


Hand holding

by hazelandglasz



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, Oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 03:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14845244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelandglasz/pseuds/hazelandglasz
Summary: My ipod randomly played Chris Colfer's version of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and my brain started running like a hamster in a wheel ...





	Hand holding

5th grade

“Come on Kurt, you’ll get lost in that crowd--take my hand!”

Kurt has to admit that there is something comforting in his bestest friend holding his hand and guiding him through the sea of older people’s legs in front of them.

Blaine is so confident and so tall, he never gets lost.

“Do you have a compass in your head?” Kurt asks as they go from the manta ray aquarium to the octopus.

Blaine never drops his hand. “I don’t think so,” he replies, his voice muffled by the glass. 

Kurt looks at him with a tiny frown before copying him. Blaine often has the best ideas when it comes to animals. With his nose smushed against the glass, Kurt can see all the details of the octopus’ tentacles when it slams against the glass. He lets out a shriek and jumps away, but Blaine never lets go of his hand.

“Kurt!”

Kurt swallows down on his tears. “It scared me.”

Blaine squeezes his hand and comes to stand closer. “It’s okay,” he says, his missing teeth making his voice softer, “look at it now.”

They both stay one step away from the glass, and they look at the octopus as it floats and swims, almost dances across the space of its aquarium.

“It’s pretty, ain’t it?”

Kurt nods and smiles at Blaine. “It is. Sometimes something scary can still be pretty.”

Blaine nods wisely before returning his eyes to the map. “Let’s go and see the otters!”

As they rush to play with the otters, Kurt considers the warmth of his bestest friend’s hand in his, and thinks that it is the prettiest thing.

8th grade

“Kurt, wait up!”

Kurt does freeze in the crowd, letting Blaine catch up with him. “I hate crowds,” Blaine mumbles when they are finally reunited. 

“You love performing to a crowd, though,” Kurt says with a teasing smile.

“I do,” Blaine sighs, “but I hate having to get rough just to make my way. We shouldn’t have to fight to exist!”

_ On more levels than you think _ , Kurt thinks in petto, startled when Blaine wraps his hand around Kurt’s. “Um, Blaine?”

“We’re the same size now, but you’re more confident than me,” Blaine says as they keep walking towards the movie theater. “That way we won’t get lost!”

“Sure.” Kurt doesn’t mind, he really, really doesn’t. As a matter of fact, he loves having Blaine’s hand to hold.

But the looks they are getting from some people in the crowd--noticeably more aggressive than when they were youngers--make him let go of Blaine’s hand under the pretense of arranging his jacket.

Kurt loves B--he loves holding Blaine’s hand, but he has to be careful if he doesn’t want his weekends to look like his school days, thrown in dumpsters and knocked against the lockers.

Blaine doesn’t say anything, smiling sweetly at Kurt as he goes to get them snack without having to ask what Kurt wants to order.

They know each other so well, and yet, there is one thing Kurt can not, will not ever tell Blaine.

For both their sakes.

Because his secret is scary, and troubling, and not at all pretty.

10th grade

Kurt squeezes Blaine’s hand, biting on his lower lip.

He will  _ kill  _ them.

“Kurt, it’s okay.”

“Blaine, you have a bruised up face, don’t tell me it’s okay!”

“Fine, it’s not okay,” Blaine says, voice clipped, “but you’re kinda hurting my hand right now.”

“Oh.” Kurt lets go of Blaine’s hand, but Blaine catches it before Kurt can pull it away completely.

“I didn’t say I wanted you to let go completely,” Blaine says sweetly, an answer to Kurt’s unspoken question. “I like holding your hand, to be honest.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Even if those thugs probably hunt you down because of it?”

Blaine shrugs and winces in one breath at the ill-advised movement. “They probably hit me because  _ they _ want to hold your hand,” he says with a wink.

Kurt can feel his face heating up, surely as red as the blood on Blaine’s baby blue polo. “I--I seriously doubt it,” he still manages to stutter, flicking Blaine’s bruised knuckles. “Blaine, I--”

“Kurt, it will be alright. Next year, you and I will be Freshmen, hopefully in different classes than those …”

“Neanderthals?”

“Sure. I was going with a more anatomical description, but that works too.” Kurt laughs at that and Blaine relaxes too. “Kurt, it’s three more years and we’ll be out of this state.”

“Three more years.” Kurt gently squeezes Blaine’s hand. “We can do this.”

“Duh. There’s nothing that can stop us if we’re together.”

Kurt’s heart does a valiant effort to break from his ribs and come out singing, but Kurt manages to calm it down into an inside samba. “To--together?”

Blaine frowns at him with his one unbruised eye. “We’re best friends, aren’t we? Like Miguel and Tulio.”

“Right, like Miguel and Tulio.”

Freshman Year

Except that Blaine’s parents have decided that maybe the public school system was not the safest environment for their son, and they send him to Dalton Academy with barely a week to say goodbye to his friends.

Well, his friend.

“Blaine, let go of Kurt’s hand.” Pam is tense as she smiles at Burt. “You two were very kind to accompany us for his first day.”

Burt puts his hand on both boys’ shoulder. “I didn’t have it in me to separate them any longer than necessary.”

Kurt will hug the hell out of his dad once they’re back in the car, but for now, he needs to squeeze Blaine’s hands. Blaine. Blaine. Blaine.

Blaine who looks so small in his uniform--though very dapper, for sure, the tie is a formidable accessory and …

What is he thinking?!

Curse that tie and that color scheme, they’re taking Blaine away from him. 

“I’m--I’m still going to be back every two weeks,” Blaine says, swallowing on his tears. “We can still be best friends. We could write letters to each other!”

“Letters? Like, on paper and everything?” Even through his sorrow, Kurt can see the idea has some merit. Very Paris 1930s, if anything else. He can dig the romanticism of an epistolar friendship.

“Yep. I can even make collages for you.”

“And I’ll send you pressed flowers?”

Blaine’s cheeks take a pink hue. “I would love that.”

“Miguel and Tulio?”

“Miguel and Tulio.”

Over their heads, Pam and Burt exchange a “I have no clue, you neither, alright, let’s roll with it” look.

Somewhere in the distance, a bell rings and fear crosses Blaine’s eyes. “You--you’ll be all right?” He asks, but Kurt can hear his unspoken question.

_ Will I be all right? _

_ Will  _ we _ be all right?! _

“Of course,” Kurt says, squeezing Blaine’s hand one more time before letting go. “Go be a rockstar.”

Blaine straightens up his lapels and exhales deeply. “Sure.”

Pam and Blaine walk away, but Blaine looks over his shoulder one more time to wave at Kurt. Somehow, Kurt manages to smile and wave back until the massive door closes behind his best friend.

Only then does he crumple. Burt pulls him close. “It will be all right, bud.”

“I--I don’t know how I’ll manage in school, Dad.”

“You’re strong, son. And you’ll make new friends.”

Kurt sighs. “If you say so.”

Junior Year

“Kurt! What are you doing here?”

Damn. Kurt was sure he would be able to spy on the Warblers without running into Blaine. There goes his cover. 

“I am, um, looking around.”

“Are you considering joining the Academy?”

“Considering all my options.”

Blaine takes Kurt’s hand to pull him toward a stone bench. “Are things getting worse at McKinley?”

Kurt briefly closes his eyes and allows himself a small nod. Blaine knows about the hardships of school already--not all of it, though.

Blaine hasn’t let go of his hand, either, so that’s a bonus.

“Want to see the Warblers’ rehearsal?”

Kurt flushes bright red. Blaine doesn’t look at him, but from the corner of his eye, Kurt can see him smirking. That ass. Saw right through him. “That … could be nice. Aren’t they going to see right through me and beat me up?”

“The Warblers are more civilized than this.” Blaine stands up, holding up his hand once again. “Plus, I have an in with their leader, I’ll put in a good word for you. Now come on, it’s about to start, but I know a shortcut.”

A few months later

For the first time since they met each other, Blaine’s hand on Kurt’s feels clammy and sweaty and it … trembles?

“There is a moment where you just tell yourself ‘Oh, there you are, I have been looking for you forever.’ I have always known we were meant to meet each other, but watching you sing Blackbird this week, that was--”, Blaine pauses, tightening his hold on Kurt’s hand while Kurt is about to pass out, “that was a moment for me. It opened my eyes on what you meant to me, and this duet would have given me an excuse to spend more time with you, to build up the courage to talk to you about it, maybe sing about it?”

Kurt wetly laughs. “That’s why you picked a break-up song?”

Blaine responds with a slightly hysterical giggle. “Nah, that’s just me knowing your guilty pleasure with cheesy ballad.”

Before Kurt can reply anything else, Blaine looks at him and leans over, pressing their lips together.

In a flash, Kurt sees all the moments in their lives during which Blaine held his hand: when they met, in a grown-up handshake; at the aquarium as to not lose each other in the crowd; every time Kurt got scared, every time Blaine needed comfort.

That kiss? It is filled with all those emotions and more, a reminder of what they have and a promise of what is to come.

“Wow.”

“Wow,” Blaine echoes, beaming at him. “We should--we should practice.”

“I think we’ve practiced enough,” Kurt says in a growl, releasing Blaine’s hand to grab his tie and pull him back to him.


End file.
